Twitter goes black for Independent journo Guy Adams after a series of stinging critical tweets against NBC for its time-delay coverage of the Olympics. (?itsjusthugo)

(Newser)
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Twitter is sparking stunned squeals of protest over its decision to block a British journalist after he criticized Olympic coverage by NBC and the network complained. Twitter has suspended the account of Guy Adams, the Los Angeles correspondent for the Independent. The newspaper's deputy editor blasted the move as "heavy-handed." Adams scorched NBC's time-delay coverage of the Olympics, saying it's a consumer-unfriendly strategy to maximize advertising revenue. "America's left coast forced to watch Olympic ceremony on six hour time delay. Disgusting money-grabbing by @NBColympics," Adams tweeted. He later added: "I have 1000 channels on my TV. Not one will be showing the Olympics opening ceremony live. Because NBC are utter, utter bastards."

NBC said it had complained to Twitter after Adams published the email address of one of its senior bosses so consumers could complain to the executive. "We filed a complaint with Twitter because a user tweeted the personal information of one of our executives," said an NBC spokesman. "According to Twitter, this is a violation of their privacy policy." (The Los Angeles Times promptly reprinted the email.) But Adams says the email is a corporate contact that's readily available on the Internet, and he did nothing that violated Twitter guidelines. A spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based firm refused to comment on the matter. Several media critics are slamming Twitter for what they view as censorship. "What makes this a serious issue is that Twitter haspartnered with NBC during the Olympics," writes blogger Dan Gillmor. If Twitter doesn't apologize and reinstate Adams' account, it "will have demonstrated that it can be bullied by its business partners into acts that damage its credibility."

I'm pretty stunned that Twitter has done this. What will the twits censor next?

chillette

Jul 31, 2012 7:49 AM CDT

This is nothing new and happening all over the internet. Individuals and companies with influence have paid employees who scour blogs and social networks to see if anything negative is said about them. I have seen comments removed and people blocked just for expressing their views. Comments that were not offensive or lewd but just critical. I even know of a few more outspoken blog spots started and popularized by people who had this done to them. It isn't just twitter. This is one reason why I don't even like to flag people. This censorship has gotten out of control. This is just another reason I have refused to watch a single second of the Olympics this year. The Olympic Committee is corrupt and their exclusive rights to NBC is a manifestation of that.